As we all know, painting in watercolor needs a thick paper or any medium capable of holding water or withstanding wetness. Thus, a watercolor paper came in.
Ever since I started sketching and watercolor-ing it on plain paper a few months ago, I have a change in mindset. A change in perspective.
Watercolor paper is expensive (at least for me). There are times when we are scared or hesitated on drawing something not worth the price of the paper.
There is always this mindset to produce good art because it’s an expensive paper!
But sketching in plain paper gives me the dont-care attitude whether I would make a stupid art or not.
With the mindset that plain paper is just a scratch paper, I can sketch and color freely.
If it turns out bad, I can just throw it away. If it turns out good, then the better.
It gives the sense of confidence in drawing. It gives you no hesitation at all.
Another advantage is the portability.
There is a huge difference in carrying a watercolor book vs one sheet of scratch paper.
I always carry my sketchbook (made of watercolor paper) because a scene may pop anytime that requires me to sketch. Having said that, my little bag is always filled with my art materials.
Now I can save space and weight because I now carry one or two sheet of thin paper.
I have to make an important note here.
I only use plain paper for my watercolor because I usually do on-the-go sketching.
For instance, when I’m having lunch with friends and I wanted to sketch the restaurant (urbansketching), I don’t have to let them wait for me to finish.
I just have to sketch quickly and then color it later on.
Painting on plain paper is for on-the-go purposes. And it won’t replace watercolor paper for long hours of portrait or landscape painting.
If you are aiming to sit for several hours in a wonderful scenery, trying to paint the beautiful view in front of you, then plain paper is definitely not the right one.
Here’s my sketch in S&R (Ayala, Cebu branch) during our quick lunch with my officemates.
This is the picture during the sketching part:
And this is the paper:
Notice there’s even a print at the back of the paper because this is just a scratch paper.
And here’s my previous watercolor-on-plain-paper art:
At least use a heavier paper I use 75 lbs. sketch pad ( Canson and a cheaper Hilroy ).
The one I use is not even a heavy paper.
It’s a standard A4 bond paper. The normal one.
But yah, the heavier the paper, the better in terms of watercolor 🙂 Thanks Belmes 🙂
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[…] Don’t buy expensive materials. A basic pen and paper will do. I explained similar in my previous article: Reasons Why I Watercolor On Ordinary Plain Paper.. […]